The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom Review (2024)

Tri any way you like.

It’s been a long time coming, but finally a Legend of Zelda game is a legend ABOUT Zelda. Long-standing jokes about the name of the franchise aside, Link has always been the star of the show, and the “legend” about Zelda was mostly that she needed help getting out of various bad situations. Not so in The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, though – this time it’s Link who’s been lost in the line of duty, and the spotlight shifts solely to the Princess of Hyrule to save the day.

Echoes of Wisdom opens with Link effortlessly moving through a dungeon to find Princess Zelda, locked inside a crystal by dark forces. Right as he finds her, a strange rift opens in the floor and swallows him whole before he’s able to rescue the Princess – leaving Zelda to do the rescuing for once. Zelda soon gains a new ally in her quest, a fairy spirit named Tri. Gifting Zelda a magical artifact called the Tri Rod, the two set out to rescue their lost friends and set things right in Hyrule.

The Tri Rod gives Zelda access to the key abilities that help her explore Hyrule – and set her apart from our usual green-clad hero. With the Rod, Zelda is able to “copy” certain objects and enemies in the world, and then create Echoes of them to aid her. You can create a few Moblin Echoes to aid you in a fight, clone crates to help you climb over an obstacle, or even just drop a bed in the middle of a fight to sneak in a health-recovering nap before your foes can strike you again.

You can also shift objects or enemies around with a kind of telekinesis – helpful for moving boxes out of the way, or even holding an enemy in place do your Echoes can whale on them uninterrupted. You can also flip this power around, and put Zelda in lockstep with the target’s movement, allowing you to hang on to a moving platform, or let an airborne enemy help you get higher up.

Setting out across Hyrule, Zelda’s search for Link and the members of the Royal Court sees her tracking down the large-scale rifts that have opened across the kingdom, in the hopes of finding the missing individuals inside. Using Tri’s abilities, Zelda is able to step through the rifts and into the Still World, an endless void filled with the people and places taken by the rifts. Whole pieces of land float unsupported, broken into chunks and rearranged almost randomly – you might come across whole sections of the world hanging sideways, with Hyrule citizens suspended in a stone-like state throughout.

These lost pieces of Hyrule can only be restored by Tri and their fellow fairy spirits, currently trapped within the rifts themselves. As you rescue more and more spirits, Tri’s abilities grow stronger; able to summon more Echoes at once, or decreasing the “summoning” costs of the more complex Echoes you’ve found.

While the game does give you some basic instruction on ways to use your powers, it’s very happy to let you figure the rest out yourself. Simple techniques like stacking beds to make a staircase or lighting fires with flaming monster Echoes are a great place to start, and gives you some sense of how badly the game wants you to just go crazy with it.

The rush of collecting Echoes is a big part of it – especially early on, you’ll constantly be receiving new ones to add to your toolkit. The tell-tale sparkle effect on an object you can learn is subtle but always alluring, and encourages you to mix it up early on and regularly try new Echoes. While you’ll undoubtedly find a selection of go-to tools as you progress, it’s worth experimenting now and then to see if you find something better.

In addition to Echoes, Zelda eventually gains access to a Swordfighter mode, allowing her to embody the warrior spirit of the lost Link. Far more effective in battle than most of your Echoes, the Swordfighter can only be used for as long as you have magic energy in store.

Defeating shadow enemies from the rifts will refill your magic gauge, but it’s an all-too scarce resource in the main world of Hyrule. Early in the game it felt like the only time I could use the Swordfighter was in the rifts, when shadow enemies were available to beat – half the time I’d be wandering Hyrule with an empty gauge, just hoping to find a rift somewhere.

Speaking of the overworld – Echoes of Wisdom’s version of Hyrule is a curious new twist. This is the first 2D-style Zelda game to really lean into the aesthetics and regions established in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, while still honouring mainstays like Kakariko Village. From Link’s iconic hooded cape, regions like the Faron Wetlands or Gerudo Town, and even enemy types introduced (or revamped) in the recent open-world titles, Echoes feels like a companion piece to those newer games.

This makes sense — the Tri Rod evokes the same creative problem-solving as the Sheikah tablet of Breath of the Wild. At the same time, the game still honours elements of the series’ past – to my memory, this is the first time the two different designs of Zora have appeared in the same game. Echoes of Wisdom even dives into this split in the species in its story, showing that the game is a celebration of all things Legend of Zelda.

Even crafting makes it into Echoes of Wisdom in a small way, with the addition of smoothie shops. At various locations across the world map, Business Deku Scrubs will offer to whip up fresh drinks for you to carry with you as you travel. Depending on the ingredients you combine you can restore Zelda’s health, her magic energy or even bestow specific benefits like heat resistance, glowing in the dark, or reducing damage taken. All of these effects will be familiar to folks used to whipping up meals in Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, and while they’re not as essential to the core game as those title’s food crafting, it still makes you feel more in control of Zelda’s adventure.

The shiny, chibi art style established in 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake has been taken even further in Echoes of Wisdom, with every character and enemy looking like a shiny, vinyl toy come to life. The stubby character models are still detailed and gorgeous, and enemy designs truly look like the classic 2D sprites brought to life. Everything is presented through a tilt shift perspective that makes everything on-screen feel like a toy set you’re standing over.

All of this works in concert to encourage a sense of play in the game – you’re free to use as many Echoes as you like, as often as you like, without any kind of ‘recharge time’ to make it feel like you’re being penalised. Even small things like not taking damage from falling in pits makes it feel risk-free to just try something crazy and see what happens. Even if you do take a beating, just drop a fresh bed in the room and you’ll soon be at maximum again!

Overall, The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom is a unique new addition to the Zelda family. It’s wonderful to see the same boundless creativity celebrated in a smaller-scale title, and having that carried forward as a core element of the Zelda franchise makes me excited for other titles in future.

Echoes wants nothing more than for you to solve the problems in front of you in any way you like, and puts no energy into deciding on one correct solution. The moment you find an elevator-type Echo to get you to high places, the entire map is essential open for you to investigate at your own pace. No corner of the world is unreachable by a princess with a sensible hairdo and a magic wand – and I’m just happy to enjoy the ride.

The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom was reviewed using a promotional code on Nintendo Switch, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.